The remodeled Ohio State defense has a mantra: Four to six seconds of total effort, going from point A to point B as fast as possible. So why include a newly named position of walkout linebacker?

In fact, that moniker is a poor representation of the requirements of the position and reflects inaccurately on the efforts Darron Lee put in to gain the No. 1 spot. Ball awareness, hustle and making plays are what elevated the redshirt freshman from New Albany in the spring, and he has kept it up in preseason camp.

The position was known as the strong-side, or “Sam,” linebacker before new co-defensive coordinator Chris Ash installed a more aggressive scheme in the offseason.

“I’m the walkout ’backer, as we call it,” Lee said. “I have to also help in on run, depending on formation, and then, depending on formation, I have to help on pass.

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“So I have to be patient but also on my toes at all times. I have to be fast. I have to run with speed receivers like Jalin Marshall and Dontre (Wilson), and also take on blocks from, say, (tight ends) Jeff Heuerman and Nick Vannett.”

Lee was tabbed as an “athlete” coming out of high school, where he played almost every skill position, including quarterback. He was a ’tweener physically, at 6 feet 2 and 205 pounds, and was projected at safety or linebacker, if he bulked up.

But Ohio State had signed a couple of blue-chip linebackers, Trey Johnson and Mike Mitchell, in the 2013 class, so Lee was seen by most observers as a down-the-road project. Instead, Mitchell transferred after his freshman year, Johnson has been slowed by nagging injuries, and Lee stepped up in the shuffled scheme.

“I’m a competitor,” Lee said. “I think all the way back from when I camped (in a high-school summer session at OSU) to get an offer here, I just had to make it known I was a competitor. Whatever position they put me in here, I was just going to compete.”

He has grown into his role in more ways than one.

“Now that I’ve gotten to 230, I feel like a linebacker,” Lee said recently. “I can help in the box, take on blocks and all that now.”

In the spring, Lee caught the eye of coach Urban Meyer, who made him the example of what he expects from a defense that’s battling back from the sometimes embarrassing efforts against the pass in 2013. Remember the “4 to 6, A to B” stuff?

“I have no idea what he’s doing, and he probably has no idea, but I don’t care,” Meyer said of Lee last spring. “That’s the thing: I want to make sure that culture is out there.”

Lee said it’s a culture — fostered by Ash, coordinator Luke Fickell, cornerbacks coach Kerry Coombs and new defensive line coach Larry Johnson — that his fellow defenders have embraced, and he thinks it shows in their camaraderie.

“I think this defense is more close-knit than it was the past three years,” said Lee, who is being pushed by fellow redshirt freshman Chris Worley. “We know the task at hand, the job at hand. The message is clear. The culture is clear. … We go as hard as we can until they blow the whistle.”

Meanwhile, “If you don’t abide by that culture, the coaches will not play you,” Lee said. “So everybody sticks together, and we go out and work hard every single day.”

The payoff is speed, because the more players know about how things work, the quicker they’re able to move.

“It took a minute for everything to slow down, and now things are really starting to slow down,” Lee said. “And when the game slows down, watch out.”

LB Berger says he has knee injury

Freshman linebacker Kyle Berger, who missed his senior season at Cleveland St. Ignatius last year because of a knee injury, tweeted yesterday afternoon that he has suffered the same injury in preseason camp.